Methods, techniques and means of teaching foreign

2.Methods of Teaching Foreign Languages 
The grammar-translation method. 
During the reign of Peter the Great a great number of educational institutions 
(special schools, professional and classical schools) were opened. Their aim was 
not only to train specialists for the state and church but to train skilled workers in 
various fields (seamen, builders, workmen, translators). It was in these years when 
the learning of Latin and ancient Greek was followed by the learning of an 
additional foreign language that became the official educational subject. Latin, 
however, remaining the standard of systemacity and consistency as before, the 
teaching of ―living‖ language was the grammar-translation method based on 
(XVIII-XIX). The proponents of this school V. Gumboldt, D. Gamilton, G. 
Ollendorf considered the language to be a system and since the grammar was the 
most systematic language level, in teaching the emphasis was made on thorough 
grammatical system language learning. (Celce-Murcia,1991) Besides, the priority 
of learning grammar resulted from the prevailing at that time opinion that grammar 
reflected the logic of thinking and therefore grammar exercises learnt to think.
The cornerstone of education was the written language since only it reflected 
the true language. Therefore, the texts were the main material the education was 
based on, P. Gleizer and EH. Pettsol'd stated that ― The texts for reading were 
chosen according to their suitability to reflect the grammar material being studied 
in the best way.‖( Solontsova, 2009) Some proponents of this method (Heinrich 
Ollendorf and others) considered the educational text content was to repulse but 

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not to attract schoolchildren for in studying grammar it was important to master the 
grammar not the text.
To control the level of understanding grammar the students were to translate 
from the native language, the sentences not being connected with each other in the 
meaning:‖ Lions, bears and elephants are strong‖, ―This bear has a niece and a 
nephew ‖, ―These camels wrote their lesson of Russian language‖(Bik,1890). The 
vocabulary was considered to be only the illustration for grammar learning. The 
words were recommended to learn out of context as the isolated units since they 
were supposed to differ from each other only by sound and graphic but not by the 
meaning, compatibility etc.
In spite of the fact that this method made it possible to understand the 
grammar of the language being learned thoroughly it couldn’t provide elementary 
communicative skills. The students could hardly express their thoughts and were 
not able to communicate with the native speakers. Also, translating word for word 
is wrong because exact translation is not always possible or correct. Moreover, 
translation is nowadays considered an index of one’s language proficiency. 
(http://hubpages.com/hub/Foreign-language-teaching-methods-approaches)
Textual-translation method. 
At the end of the 18th century there appeared a variety of the grammar-
translation method –textual-translation method. According to the representatives of 
this method (J. Jacotot, G. Langenstein, J. Toussaint) the training goal was the 
students’ overall development in reading classical literature. The content and 
stylistic features of the text became more important.
In some textbooks there was the line arrangement of the texts: in the first 
line there was a text in a foreign language, in the second line there was its 
transcription and the third line contained its literal translation, with the grammar 
structure being the same as in the foreign language. Having repeated the text after 

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the teacher many times and having read the transcription the students were to 
analyze the translation and propose the appropriate literature translation. Thereby, 
the pronunciation was practiced, the analysis, vocabulary and grammar learning 
was carried out. Unlike the representatives of the grammar-translation method the 
proponents of the textual-translation method didn’t study the grammar in detail 
they used and analyzed only the material that was in the text. Therefore, the 
grammar teaching was irregular. The vocabulary, as before, was formed by the 
mechanical learning of separate words and texts in the foreign language. The 
representatives of this method, however, made a great contribution in the language 
teaching methods having used for the first time the translation from the native 
language into the foreign one
2
. 
We quite agree with the conclusions of the authors of the book ―Foreign 
Language Teaching Methods at the Secondary School‖ (Gez et al ,1982) that for 
the first time in the history of teaching methods the translation methods of the 
foreign language teaching had serious drawbacks. Firstly, they were badly directed 
towards the language acquisition as communication means even for reading 
training. The main task was only general education, it being understood as the 
development of logical thinking as a result of grammar learning and as the general 
development as a result of accidental grammar learning during text studying. 
Secondly, the characteristic feature of these methods was form and content 
separation. In the grammar-translation method all attention was focused on the 
form, with the content being disregarded. In the textual-translation method the 
texts were not always available since the grammar was studied unsystematically 
and the students were badly prepared to its perception. Thirdly, the language 
learning was based on the grammar and logic identification, on the dead language 
recognition as the ideal and on the disregarding of the living languages specific 
features.
2
Billows F. L. The techniques of language teaching. London: Longman, 1961, DOI: 10.2307/321360 Blumfield L. 
Language. M.: Progress, 1968.

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Direct methods 
At the end of the 19th century the translation methods were replaced by the 
direct methods of foreign language teaching. Their main goal was mastering the 
oral communication. In their book (Foreign Language Teaching Methods at the 
Secondary School) the authors state that besides the existing social-economic 
conditions the search for new teaching methods and approaches was caused by the 
convergence of such sciences as Psychology and Linguistics. In Linguistics there 
appeared a new psychological school headed by a linguist and psychologist 
Hermann Steinthal. The school itself didn’t influence the teaching methods but it 
became the intermediate link between the logical school (it studied the language in 
its relation to thinking and knowledge) and the neogrammarian school (it 
considered the language as an individual psychophysical and psychophysiological 
activity). The neogrammarian school made a great influence on the language 
teaching theory. The scholars of this school studied the similarities in the language 
based on the psychological associations in the mind of the person speaking. The 
achievements in Psychology also influenced the direct method development. In the 
works devoted to the language the founder of the experimental psychology W. 
Wundt, being a follower of the associanism, stated that the speech was a kind of 
activity where acoustic and motoric sensations were of great importance. During 
speaking the sentence arises in the man’s consciousness as an integral product. It is 
this thought that is traced in the natural method proponent concept who considered 
the sentence to be the center of an oral statement. Another method was represented 
by the Würzburg school studying the man’s thinking and its forms. The scholars of 
this school stated the proposition was neither connected with speech nor with 
sensory perception. The speech was to be taught by mechanical way. The foreign 
language teaching methods were also influenced in some way by Geshtalt 
psychology. The scientists of this school considered the primary and foremost 
learning task to be the understanding the whole but not the separate elements. They 
paid great attention to the imitation during teaching, especially language teaching.

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Hence, it follows that the Pedagogics couldn’t stay at the same place. It 
required the reforms meeting the social necessities of that time for foreign 
language fluency. The new school, however, was created by theorists-practicians 
having no sufficient proof for scientific explanations of their methods. They were 
guided only by their teaching feeling.
There developed the direct teaching methods among them natural approach, 
direct, audiovisual and aural-oral methods.
The most distinguished representatives of the natural method M. Berlitz, F. 
Gouin, M. Walter thought that to learn a foreign language quickly and thoroughly 
was possible only by reconstructing the verbal environment. Despite some 
differences their teaching concepts had something in common namely the total 
exclusion of the native language from the foreign language immersion process. ― If 
we give the meaning of a new word, either by translation into the home language 
or by an equivalent in the same language, as soon as we introduce it, we weaken 
the impression which the word makes on the mind‖ (Billows, 1961) The main goal 
was practical oral speech acquisition. The teaching was to proceed by intuition like 
the child mastered his native language. 
3
Up to date in some countries there are schools where teaching is based on 
Berlitz’s methods. He believed that it was necessary to exclude the native language 
entirely from the foreign language teaching and moreover it was quite essential to 
teach thinking in a foreign language. The lesson based on his methods consists of 
the following basic stages: explaining the new vocabulary by means of objects (or 
their pictures), gestures, explanations in a foreign language etc.; the teacher’s 
conversation with the audience or with himself; conversations or short descriptions 
of the pictures by the students. Berlitz advised to teach the grammar first as the 
vocabulary and not systematically but occasionally. The abstract concepts were to 
3
Foreign Language Teaching Methods at the Secondary School: textbook/Gez N. I., Lyakhovitskij M. V., 
Mirolyubov Ⱥ.Ⱥ. i dr. –1982.

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be explained by revealing their meanings from the context. Berlitz’s system 
pursued the specific practical goals.
The other representatives of this school F. Gouin and M. Walter adhered to 
the same teaching concepts but they introduced new techniques for creating the 
natural verbal environment.
In the field of Pedagogics Gouin followed J. Pestalozzi’s ideas and his 
doctrine about sense-visual perception and in the field of Psychology he followed 
H. Steinthal’s ideas who considered the language processes to be the reflection of 
man’s mental activity. 
Having studied the teaching and methodical literature we found out an 
interesting fact that while observing the children Gouin revealed that in the native 
language the children accompanied their playing with toys with comments in the 
chronological sequence. It was this case that caused the creation of his own 
original methods that was based on the following principles: the natural language 
teaching is connected with the man’s needs to express his feelings; the teaching 
basis is to be a sentence but not a word; the most reliable and effective perception 
is the auditory one therefore the primary teaching means is to be oral speech but 
not reading and writing. The center of any sentence is the verb that is the key to its 
understanding. The new feature of his system is that the vocabulary semantization 
is carried out by means of ―internal visualization‖ that is based on the logic 
sequence of the actions being made.
Walter’s characteristic feature was that he accompanied each lesson with 
playing organizing a kind of theatre performance where the students were the 
actors. Considering the sense perception of the surrounding world to be very 
important he tried to bring the teaching closer to the students’ acquaintance with 
the country they learned the language of. While teaching the German language in 
Scotland he made his classroom to be looked like a pub.

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Following the principles of associative psychology he stated that it was 
much easier to remember the material if it was organized by creating the 
associations. As L. P. Solontsova stated: ―It should be noticed that M. Walter for 
the first time in the history of linguistics arranged the vocabulary into groups as the 
means for its learning and remembering. He suggested organizing the words into 
different groups: synonyms and antonyms, words belonging to the same topic, 
paronymous words.‖
Nowadays the teaching methods specialists consider his methods of 
describing pictures to be interesting. In describing a picture he advised to 
emphasize the forms of the object, its physical characteristics (size, form, colour 
etc.), the actions with this object and its usage.
Despite the new approaches into the teaching methods, however, the natural 
method was severely criticized by the linguists and psychologists because of 
having insufficient scientific basis. At the turn of the 20th century the direct 
method of foreign language teaching was derived from the natural method. The 
main advantage of this teaching method unlike the natural one was that it was 
developed by such prominent scientists as O. Jespersen, H. Sweet, P. Passy, V. 
Fiester. The direct method was called so because its proponents identified the 
foreign language word directly with its concept without using the native language 
word.
It should be noted that these two methods had much in common. Both the 
natural and direct methods were aimed at practical language skills that were 
limited to teaching the oral communication skills but the direct method followers 
broadened the concept ‖practical skills‖ by adding the teaching of reading.
The direct method as well as the natural one eliminated the native language 
usage and translation. According to the authors of the textbook ―Foreign Language 
Teaching Methods at the Secondary School‖ the denial to use the translation was 
caused by the prevailing at that time linguistic theory that stated each language 

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reflected different world outlook. Therefore, the translation in the strict sense of 
this word was impossible since each nation had its own paradigm.
The vocabulary selection for the lessons was determined by the topics and 
communication situations taken from the real life and the grammar material to be 
learned was to correspond with the existing at that time language norm. The 
scientists who developed this method advised to use induction at the lessons i.e. 
the students were to observe the language model usage at speech and to find the 
language patterns by themselves. The teacher, thereafter, arranged these language 
patterns into a certain system by means of rules and instructions. (Shchukin,2004)
The essential difference between the direct and natural methods was that the 
former restricted to some extent the language material not only the vocabulary but 
grammar and phonetics as well. The phonetic material was for the first time 
scientifically selected and significantly broadened.
Unlike the direct method spread in Europe its features were somewhat 
different in Russia. Its proponents didn’t so strongly object to the native language 
usage. They allowed its using as a means of the word semantization
4
and 
understanding control. L. V. Shcherba wrote the following about the direct 
method: ―Though the direct method intention to make the foreign language 
knowledge totally independent from the native language and to prevent it from the 
influence of the latter is quite legitimate and methodically right in its essence 
nevertheless it absolutely fails in practice: the environment is stronger all these 
tricks the direct method dictates and the native language negatively affects the 
students’ foreign language. The requirement to manage without the native 
language often causes the great time, energy and ingenuity expenditures that are 
quite wasteful in most cases since the complete understanding usually comes after 
the student’s finding his own equivalent in the native language. Moreover this 
requirement makes it quite impossible to explain the students more subtle language 
4
Glejzer P., Pettsold EH., German textbook ch. II. Izd. 10. - S. - Peterburg, 1912.

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phenomena that leads to the devaluation of foreign language learning from the 
educational point of view.‖
A. A. Mirolyubov in his works also quoted the famous teaching specialists 
and scientists confirming the necessity of foreign language usage. E. Bik stated:‖ I 
am far from rejecting the benefit of the students’ acquaintance with the living 
speech but I can’t, however, agree with the native language removal at the 
beginning of the foreign language learning because while rendering the meaning of 
a given phrase from the language being learnt into the native one we develop the 
ability to the unconscious learning and thus contribute to the language spirit 
understanding and especially speech patterns that become noticeable only with the 
native language assistance.‖ The author also quotes the great Russian educator K. 
D. Ushinskiy that in translating from the foreign language it is not enough to 
understand the thought being translated thoroughly, to catch all its shades but it is 
by far more important to find the appropriate expression in the native language. 
Mind, intellect, imagination, memory, speech are to be trained simultaneously. 
According to A. A. Mirolyubov the ―Russian version‖ development of the direct 
method is also explained by the Russian and West-European language difference. 
The similarity of West-European languages made it possible to develop education 
without using the students’ native language. It was impossible to do it in Russia. 
The direct method representatives made considerable contribution in the foreign 
language teaching methods.
Neodirect methods 
In the 20th century there appeared the new variants of the direct method-
neodirect ones that were divided into the Palmer’s oral method, audiolingual and 
audiovisual methods. All these methods were based on the basic positions of direct 
method but each representative of the new method tried to renew and improve his 
approach of foreign language teaching.

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In his teaching concept Harold Palmer, an English educator and teaching 
specialist shared the linguistic ideas of sociological school (F, de Saussure, A. 
Meilett), behaviourist psychology (E. Thorndike, J. Watson) and pragmatical 
pedagogics (J. Dewey). Each of them in V. E. Raushenbakh’ opinion didn’t 
recognize the language and thinking integrity, considered the language to be an 
abstract phenomenon. This viewpoint at the language promoted the consciousness 
in the language learning wasn’t almost used and was replaced by mechanical 
methods that were to cause the appropriate physiological (e.g. speech) reflexes. 
Palmer being the proponent of the intuitive language learning entirely shared the 
direct ideas about the students’ immersion into the language medium. He thought 
that many failures in foreign language teaching were caused by the fact that the 
students were required to answer the questions by all means therefore at the 
beginning of the language learning he introduced the so-called ―latent period‖ (up 
to two months) when the students were only to listen and immerse into the foreign 
speech developing the aural memory. The repetitive drilling is the basis of any 
language learning and it is referred to both the separate words and phrases and 
sentences. In his opinion the perceptual memorizing and repetitive drilling made it 
possible to avoid mistakes
5
.
Palmer’s main contribution was the teaching content rationalization. For the 
first time he structured the vocabulary being learned selecting it on the basis of 
linguistic and teaching principles: 1) frequency- a lexical unit usage rate compared 
with other ones, with the different meanings of one and the same word being 
considered separately; 2) structural combinatory- the lexical unit ability as a 
sentence element (ergon) to combine with others; 3) concretion- the lexical units 
meaning concrete concepts should be included in the basic vocabulary in the first 
place as they could be semantized by means of visual aids; 4) proportionality- the 
proportion of different parts of speech in the basic vocabulary must be the same as 
5
Gusevskaya N.YU. Language Teaching Theory and Methods. Proceedings ZabGu. 2013. ʋ6 (53)

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in the natural language; 5) appropriateness- if it belongs to the same semantic 
group as the previously selected words.
The requirements to the text selection that are used in the teaching process 
are also rather notable. The text content must be of interest to the students and 
correspond to their age, they must contain only the things known to the students 
and the subject texts must be preferred due to their greater suitability to the oral 
speech mastering. As far as the vocabulary and language material is concerned the 
texts must consist of strictly selected vocabulary and at the initial level they must 
contain up to 95% of these words, with the meaning of the unknown words being 
understood by the students from the context.
Palmer made some rationalization into the grammar teaching as well. In his 
work ―A Hundred of Substitution Tables‖ he selected the main sentence types most 
frequently used in the language and created the substitution tables on their basis. 
(Palmer,1923)The major goal of these tables was to help structuring secondary 
constructions on the basis of vocabulary unit combinatory. The students were to 
make up sentences quickly. Such drillings were repeated a lot of times and the 
students mastered a great number of sentences. Unlike the direct method 
representatives Palmer tried to arrange the exercises into a definite sequence i.e. 
system. He proposed to create a system of exercises considering the following 
student action sequence: perception, recognition, semi-free reproduction and free 
reproduction. It was a serious advance in the teaching methods. (Solontsova, 2009)
Palmer’s ideas can be found in the modern methods of foreign language 
teaching. The idea of substitution tables is widely used now, both the grammar and 
the vocabulary substitution tables being quite popular. The idea of type sentences 
as one of the speech development basis was used by N. S. Koblents in his 
―synthetic method‖. A. P. Starkov and G. E. Vedel used oral introduction course 
based on Palmer’s ideas in the Soviet schools in the 30s of the 20th century.

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Palmer’s oral method considerably influenced the audiolingual and 
audiovisual method development.
The audiolingual method representatives, a linguist-structuralist Ch. Freeze 
and a teaching method specialist R. Lado shared the ideas of the famous at that 
time linguist L. Blumfield about the language. Blumfield considered the speech 
communication to be divided into the stimulus (influence) and the ―reaction’ (back 
action)(Blumfield, 1968). This method goal, therefore, according to Freeze and 
Lado was the development of necessary automatic reactions on the appropriate 
stimuli. The usage of perception auditory channel, multiple listening and repetition 
of foreign structures after the teacher results in such speech automatic reaction 
formation.
The representatives of this teaching method paid special attention to the 
sound (phonetic) aspect of the language being learned. Following Blumfield’s 
proposition that different sounds had different meanings in human speech;― 
learning this specific sound-meaning correspondence meant the language learning‖ 
(Blumfield) Ch. Freeze and R. Lado came to the conclusion that ― the language 
basis was its sound system and structures‖. According to this statement the 
language teaching course should contain everything related to the language sound 
system (sounds, intonation, rhythm, stress, pauses).
The culture of the country which language was learnt was also of great 
importance since regarding the language as the reflection of history, culture and 
mode of life of the people who spoke that language R. Lado thought that foreign 
language learning was inseparably connected with the penetration into the culture 
of its people as they were inseparable and couldn’t be understood separately. One 
cannot understand other nation (and its language) without acquiring its system of 
ideas that in its turn is possible only using the language of this nation as its native 
speakers use other ideas. The penetration into the nation culture, the knowledge of 
its system of ideas has both educational and practical meaning.

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Simultaneously with the audiulingual method in the USA there was 
developed an audiovisual method in France whose developers were considered to 
be R. Gouberina, P. Rivenc, C. Gougenheim, R. Michea. The representatives of 
this method advanced no new original methodological concepts except the wide 
usage of audial and visual aids. The vocabulary selection of material determined 
the goals set before this method: teaching the language of everyday communication 
in oral form and in undertime. Though this method was aimed at the adults its 
elements in the form of situational dialogues reflecting the real life of the country 
which language was used, its culture and traditions can be found in modern 
textbooks teaching foreign languages. The advantages of these two methods are the 
opening of the first language laboratories, the wide usage of new modern 
equipment and visual aids increasing the learner motivation in foreign language 
learning. The texts and dialogues about the history, culture and traditions of the 
country which language is learned expand the outlook and encourage the learners’ 
speech activity.
In spite of these contributions, audionlingualism was also criticized in many 
ways. First, its theoretic foundation was attacked as being unsound both in terms of 
language theory and learning theory by Chomsky’s theory of TG grammar; second, 
the practical results fell short of expectations and students were often found to be 
unable to transfer skills acquired through Audiolingualism to real communication 
outside the classroom. Therefore, it ignores the communicative competence in 
teaching practice (LIU Qing-xue & SHI Jin-fang, 2007).
Communicative method 
In the 40s of the last century the Soviet teaching authorities realized the 
inefficiency of certain foreign language aspect teaching and the necessity of 
development a new linguistic theory that would include the teaching of each 
speech activity aspect. First of all the learning consciousness was gradually 
increasing. The psychological and pedagogical researches convincingly showed 

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that the most important condition of the skill formation efficiency was the 
consciousness in its mastering action comprehension but not the mechanical skill 
acquisition, conscious but not intuitive language mastering Gez et al,1982)
As the goal definition changed (―language teaching‖- ―speech teaching‖- 
―speech activity teaching‖- and at last ―communication teaching‖) the teaching 
system was also to change. (Passov,1991) After thorough reconsideration and 
analysis of the existing methods E. I. Passov suggested a new communicative 
method. The peculiarity of this method was the attempt to make the foreign 
language teaching process closer to the real communication process where the 
teaching process was the communication process model
6
.
In his book ―The Communicative Method of Teaching Foreign Speaking‖ E. 
I. Passov (Passov,1991) revealed in details the notion of communicativeness. In his 
opinion the main features of communicativeness were: 1) speech orientation of the 
teaching process that causes speech-thinking activity that is the basis of the 
communicative teaching process.
- individualization of the speech activity teaching i.e. taking into account each 
individual attributes of the learners:
-their abilities, their skills to fulfill speech and learning activity and most of all 
their personality attributes. In teaching foreign speech activity the individual 
reaction is possible only if a speech task facing the learner will correspond to his 
needs and interests as an individual. To cause the appropriate response, therefore, it 
is necessary to take into account the individual and personal features: life 
experience, outlook, spheres of interests, hobbies etc.
-functionality. Language proficiency skill formation takes place as a result of 
speaking when a speaker has a certain speech task. The speech tasks set determine 
6
Harold E. Palmer. The oral method of teaching languages. Cambridge,1923 Hub pages. ESL Methods - English 
Language Teaching. http://hubpages.com/hub/Foreign-language-teaching-methods-approaches

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the topics and communication speech situations that are thoroughly selected. It is 
very important to eliminate the translation from the skill development process 
since the acquisition of speech facilities system in one language should be formed 
by exercising with this system inside it but not by comparing speech facilities 
system of another language.
-situatedness of teaching. Situatedness makes it possible to reconstruct the 
communicative reality and thus to arouse interest by speaking authenticity.
-novelty. Novelty provides the necessary development of speech ability, the ability 
to paraphrase and the ability to the unprepared speech.
Today Communicated method can be seen as a set of core principles about 
language learning and teaching, as summarized above, assumptions which can be 
applied in different ways and which address different aspects of the processes of 
teaching and learning. Some focus centrally on the input to the learning process. 
Thus content-based teaching stresses that the content or subject matter of teaching 
drives the whole language learning process. Some teaching proposals focus more 
directly on instructional processes. Others, such as competency-based instruction 
and text-based teaching, focus on the outcomes of learning and use outcomes or 
products as the starting point in planning teaching. Today Communicated method 
continues in its classic form as seen in the huge range of course books and other 
teaching resources that cite Communicated method as the source of their 
methodology. In addition, it has influenced many other language teaching 
approaches that subscribe to a similar philosophy of language teaching. (Richards, 
2001)
The research was conducted with 60 students of technical departments from 
Perm National Research Polytechnic University during the second semester for the 
academic year 2012/2013. Students were divided into 3 groups, the size of the 
groups was similar (20, 20, 20). The three groups were different from one another 

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in terms of the teaching method type: grammar-translation method (GTM), direct 
method (DM) and communicative method (CM).
The GTM group was taught and learnt English based on the grammar-
translation method approach. Written language was superior to spoken one. 
Increasing of students’ vocabulary was by the means of memorization of long lists 
of vocabulary with their equivalents in the students’ native language.
The DM group was taught according to direct method technique. Russian 
language was excluded from the learning process. The majority of time was 
avoided to oral communication such as topics, dialogs and role plays. As grammar 
was taught inductively, students should determine a regularity of a grammatical 
phenomenon usage relying on studied drills.
And in the CM group training was in accordance with communicative 
method strategy. The aim of language teaching was to develop communicative 
competence. All exercises were connected with the necessity of real 
communication situation reconstruction.
After 3 months of implementing the study, all students (three groups) had 
the similar final exam in compliance with the ederal State Educational Standards of 
Higher Professional Education. The average score in the GTM group was 3.5, in 
spite of the aims set this method couldn’t meet the requirements to the language 
proficiency level. Regardless the evident, practical training goals and high results 
in reading and translation teaching the grammar-translation method was not 
directed towards the language mastering as communication means. The average 
score in the DM group was 4.3 and this result showed that students could keep the 
conversation but relaying on the learnt phrases and drills. A great difficulty 
students had in translating a specialized professional text since the direct method 
implied an intuitional language teaching approach, students hardly ever could give 
an equivalent of a highly specialized term in their native language. And the highest 
result with the average score 4.7 showed the CM group. Students could 

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communicate their thoughts rather clearly, they didn’t feel any difficulties 
expressing their ideas. But there were certain imperfections also. And the first one 
was that students didn’t pay attention on the grammatical side of their speech 
stressing on WHAT I want to say but not HOW. And being taught to communicate 
orally, a weak point of the students in this group was writing an essay. The 
majority of the students followed the spoken style didn’t focus on the structuring 
their thoughts according to the plan of the essay.
So, as far as we can see during all its history the foreign language teaching 
methods changed a lot of times emphasizing reading, translating or audition or 
combining these processes. Each method possesses its own certain importance and 
answers the specifically set pedagogical tasks e.g. grammar and textual-translation 
methods are better suited for grammar material training before tests, direct 
methods are more appropriate for language medium immersion and for 
reconstructing the real communication situations, visual aids assist to represent 
visually and to systemize the unknown material. The teaching literature review 
makes it possible to state that nowadays there is no an ideal, universal method yet 
that would enable to cover all the aspects in such a short time given to the foreign 
language learning in a technical high school. The combination of the existing 
methods known and the teacher’s qualification, therefore, enables to make the 
lessons interesting and effective.
On the basis of the foregoing we can conclude that during the whole history 
of foreign language teaching methods development methodologists and teachers 
highlighted different types of speech activities (reading, listening, translation) 
focusing on a particular era goal. In addition, each method has its own specific 
value and responds to specific pedagogical objectives set.
Thus, historiographical analysis of foreign language teaching methods has 
allowed identifying ways to integrate different methods in the practice of language 
education. In our point of view, for students studying at the technical departments 

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it would be useful applying grammar- textual-translated methods for an 
explanation and revision of the grammar materials at the pre- text stage.